Staying away from davos
While Indian businesspersons wear their best suits to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Summit at Davos, which started from January 25, to discuss world economy, the scion of the Bajaj group, Rajiv Bajaj, doesn’t believe in the annual ritual.
“I have not been to Davos yet, because, if I may be candid, I think half the problems start from the World Economic Forum,” Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj said earlier this month while unveiling the company’s first four-wheeler, RE60, in the national capital. When the audience started clapping, he asked them not to do so, and observed,
“My father (Rahul Bajaj) has been going there for the last 40 years.” He explained that everybody has a position in life. “My position is anti-management. I believe in being an engineer. I don’t believe in all this globalisation, top-down, Wall Street and all that stuff. So that is why I have never been to WEF. However, I’m not saying it is the right thing to do.”

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Graveyard campaigners
Poll contestants in Uttar Pradesh have become overly gregarious, mingling and mixing with as many crowds of people as possible, attending all wedding functions in their constituencies whether or not they are invited.
Some smart candidates are in touch with owners or functionaries of banquet halls and venue owners to get advance information about bookings while others have even posted their men at cremation grounds and graveyards.
“This is the best PR exercise. If you attend a wedding uninvited, you get to meet the highly apologetic hosts and all the guests. Besides, you and your supporters get free lunch or dinner too. If you go to a funeral without being informed, you are bound to connect with the grieving family. Neither of these exercises entails any expenditure. On the contrary you can get more votes,” confessed a candidate.
Wonder what the Election Commission has to say on this graveyard shift?

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Wary of ultra words
While Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi is holding peace talks with a faction of Ulfa, his son Gaurav Gogoi got a pat on the back from elusive Ulfa chief Paresh Barua for organising a talk show between Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Lord Meghnad Desai on “Asia Rising: Implications for the World Economy” in Guwahati.
In his initial reaction Gogoi Jr accepted the appreciation of the Ulfa chief who in a statement said, “We are particularly happy that he is trying to distinguish Assam’s economy from that of India.”
However, soon Gogoi Jr realised the implications of such bonhomie towards Ulfa and retracted his remarks.
Obviously embarrassed, Ulfa responded by saying that Gogoi Jr retracted his remarks afraid that such warmth and overfamiliarity could prove risky for his father’s career.

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The moustache wager
Political jousting between the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh has taken on mythological overtones with politicos turning to characters from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for use in their rhetoric.
It all started when senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi taunted chief minister Raman Singh for indulging in great pomp and show during the recent week-long inauguration of nine new districts in the state by drawing a parallel between him and Raavan.
Referring to Mr Singh’s rath yatras during these inaugurations, the former chief minister said, “Only Raavan is associated with the chariot. The demon king rode his chariot while fighting Lord Ram.” Mr Jogi even quoted a stanza from the Tulsidas Ramayana for effect.
“Like Lord Ram, we Congressmen are zameen ke admi (men on ground),” he added.
Mr Jogi’s allusion to Raavan caused quite some unease in the state BJP unit with some leaders taking strong exception to the comparison, but it was BJP MP Dilip Singh Judeo who on Mr Singh’s behalf fired back a salvo with the Mahabharata allusion.
“Like Yudhishthir, who gambled away his throne and his wife, Mr Jogi staked the moustaches of all Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh while claiming to lead the party to victory in the last Assembly polls,” Mr Judeo said, reminding the former chief minister of his vow to shave off the whiskers of his party colleagues if the Congress lost the polls.
State Congress leaders who do sport the nose bristles must have cursed the clean-shaven Mr Jogi for daring Messrs Singh and Judeo.

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Plainclothes tales from rajasthan
The Jaipur Literature Festival, described as a veritable Kumbh of letters, this time drew a large number of writers, poets, authors and booklovers from India and abroad. The festival also drew security personnel of all hues to Diggi Palace, the venue of the proposed visit of controversial author Salman Rushdie.
Men in khaki were seen at every nook and corner of the venue, from the entrance to the inner recesses of the beautiful 1860-vintage Haveli Diggi Palace. Besides policemen in uniform, there were plainclothes cops, private securitymen, and even 15 bouncers. A foreign delegate, seeing the heavy police presence, was seen asking around why there were so many policemen. Nobody could tell him why. Till he bumped into a police officer, who obliged him with a reply that sounded satisfactory.
“You know Rajasthan is the land of folklore and folktales with a vast oral literature of heroic poems. Our policemen come from small towns and villages and have an abiding interest in literature. That’s why they love to hang around here all the time,” the young police officer said with a benign smile.
What the officer said was not very far from the truth, at least going by the role of an IPS officer, Hariram Meena, who participated in a festival session on Rajasthani literature. But as for the rest of them at the venue, their role was, well, unliterary.